\chapter{Serious Games: Reasoning}
\section{Overview}
\label{sec:why-serious-games-overview}
The video game industry is one of the largest growing industries of the 21st century. Sales of
video games increase every year, and the trend continues. From 2005 to 2009, the entertainment
software industry's annual growth rate exceeded 10 percent. Over the same period, the entire U.S.
 economy grew at a rate of less than two percent. As shown in figure 3.1, from
1996 to 2008, annual computer and video games sales grew from \$2.6 billion to \$11.7 billion.
\begin{figure}[H]
	\label{fig:statistics}
	\begin{center}
		\includegraphics[scale=0.45]{images/game-sales-statistics.png}
		\caption{Video Games Sales Statistics\cite{esa10}}
	\end{center}
\end{figure}

Parents that grew up with video games themselves pass on their experience to their children,
and thus video games continue to permeate our society. Already in 1995, 77 of 11-17 year old questioned
teenagers of a typical population (429 male, 387 female) played video games for one to one and half hour
a day on average\cite{phillips95}. In 2009, the average age of a gamer was 34, and 67 of all households in the U.S.
play computer or video games. Clearly, video game entertainment is already playing a large role
in the western society.

But what if all this time spent of gaming could be used constructively to tackle real world problems?

This is where Serious Games come into play. In general, serious games pursue ultimate goals other than
entertainment. Traditionally, video games specialize on amusement of the player. On the other hand,
serious games aim to bring the users benefits in the real life world. The game ideology is used to
motivate a person to engage more aggressively in solving the game's puzzles, reaching the end of the
next level, or to gain that next achievement. Through clever design of the game, progress in the game
can be converted to advantages for the player in real life.

\section{Education as a game}
\label{sec:why-serious-games-education-as-a-game}
In chapter \ref{sec:definition} we established that school, according to Abt's definition of play, apart from not being voluntary is very close to play.
\begin{enumerate}
\item School pretends or abstracts real world problems trying to prepare the students for life.
\item School is immersive or at least should be taking up the students attention.
\item Played out in limits of time and space since it follows a schedule and happens in classrooms.
\item Rules on behavior, attendance, grading, etc.
\item Social since a class is a group of people, cliques form and students know and work with each other.
\end{enumerate}

Very simply put: school, the way it is, is not fun. School is a form of play and games are also more advanced forms of play. It stands to reason that because of the already existing similarities it would not be impossible to turn school into a game.
\subsection{Example}
Lee Sheldon who is a game designer and assistant professor at Indiana University replaced grades for the duration of a semester with a level up system. \begin{quote}Class time will be divided between fighting monsters (Quizzes, Exams etc.), completing quests (Presentations of Games, Research etc.) and crafting (Personal Game Premises, Game Analysis Papers, Video Game Concept Document etc.). \cite{paul10}\end{quote}
Reportedly attendance and scores went up. Today's youth is attuned to this sort of system and associates it with fun which results in a positive attitude.

What Sheldon did was make the experience of school fun by molding its rules and design into the successful shape of a role playing game. It is safe to assume that
every student in his game design related class has spent countless hours playing these or at the very least is very familiar with them.
\subsection{Possibility}
Each year the results of the PISA study are cause for newspaper headlines and TV debates in various countries discussing where the educational system has gone wrong and what possible reforms could be done to make grading more fair, teacher selection more adequate etc. The question about what can be done to make school fun for students is left unasked while obviously a task which is fun will be tackled with motivation and eagerness. Imagine a school system designed or enhanced by mastermind game designers like those behind \textit{World of Warcraft} who keep 11 million players hooked for an average of ~20 hours per week \cite{tracy07}.
\newpage
\section{Practical reasons for Serious Games}
\label{sec:why-serious-games-practical-reasons}
Other than the actual benefits possibly gained from serious games there are also more practical reasons
for companies to turn to serious game development which will be discussed now.

\subsection{Potentially easier development}
\label{sec:why-serious-games-easier-development}
The latest shooter, racing or RTS games have something in common: they push the most recent hardware to their limits. Be it
graphics, physics simulation or creep AI of hundreds of units fighting each other on the battlefield. The creation of game
content such as models, animations, maps etc. takes up much more resources than the actual programming. Indie developers not
backed by a publisher may not be able to handle the workload involved or worse overestimate it and fail at their projects.\newline
Serious games on the other hand (with the exception of detailed simulations) tend to focus more on other aspects and often do
not require the latest and best graphics to be successful. Serious games can be created with smaller teams which greatly reduces
complexity otherwise created by communication and coordination overhead between many persons. Another plus is the potentially
easier recycling of components which is always a big advantage in development. Game engines such as the \textit{Quake Engine}
can only be re-used for so many different games until the technology allows for more advanced feature sets which require a new
platform to be developed for the game. A drawing game on the other hand if well designed can be reused, improved or progressively
replaced by swapping brushes etc. since it is simpler than that of an FPS.\newline
A diving simulation developed by BreakAway Games (a serious games developer) finds application in both US Navy training programs and
chemotherapy patients pain relieve programs which shows that developing one game engine allows for application for possibly multiple
fields while conventional games are more restricted to a specific target audience.

\subsection{Serious games in between projects}
\label{sec:why-serious-games-in-between-projects}
Game studios often come into fame by creating a successful game which leads to them being contracted by a big publisher. After a project
is finished until the contract for a sequel or different game is handed down employees have to be paid while there is no or only little
actual work to be done. Depending on the contract the game studio has with the publisher they may not even know if they will be handed
another project or \textit{when} it will happen.\newline
As stated before serious games tend to require less resources than a big commercial game and have a better estimable and shorter development
time. Serious games can thus serve as viable projects between bigger and more complex commercially critical games. Developers may also form
a team focused on collecting ideas for a serious game during the development of a game for a publisher. This allows them  to be able to start
work on their next projects as soon as possible after wrapping up their obligations to the publisher.

\subsection{Experimenting}
\label{sec:why-serious-games-experimenting}
As has already been mentioned serious games are "smaller" than mainstream games. This allows for them to serve as prototypes for aspects
of commercially critical games. If a company has an idea for a new way of controlling a character or user interface improvement they can
implement it as part of a one of their smaller serious game projects and gather feedback on this specific feature from their user base
to evaluate its usefulness.

Another way of experimenting that involves serious games is distribution. It's easier to go though the process of a few clicks of an online
banking application and being able to directly download and play the game than having to wait for it to be delivered per mail or go out
to the store and buy it. Developers can also cut distribution costs by not having to order physical copies of the game and face the risk of
not selling a chunk of their copies or having too few of them. Platforms like \textit{Valve's Steam} allow for 3rd party developers to advertise
their games and sell them digitally. If a developer is not sure about this method of distribution he may chose to first test it in combination or
instead of conventional distribution for one of the smaller serious game projects.

\subsection{Funding options}
\label{sec:why-serious-games-funding}
Classic games are pure entertainment. With the exception of Advergames or selling advertisements in games. Serious games on the other hand enable
the developer to be sponsored by organizations, foundations or individuals who try to bring attention to a certain issue or sponsor an area of interest.
The US military for example is the largest source of funds for serious games.

\section{Downside}
\label{sec:why-serious-games-downside}
While serious game development is in many ways similar or has parallels to classic game development there are differences. The target group as well
as marketing differ from classic games. A serious game with a typically smaller budget won't be featured in TV ads or magazines. A developer trying
to maintain both the production of classic and serious games as well as distribution has to wrap his head around the differences and educate
or hire employees with the necessary know how. The distraction from the already familiar process can have a negative impact and of course
initially requires an investment which is always a risk. 


\footnote{Content inspired by \cite{david05}, \cite{isabelle09}}